A programmable controller (JIS B 3502: 2011 programmable controllers (PLCs)) is used to control operations of industrial machines. A programmable display (JIS B 3551: 2012, programmable display) is used to monitor data in the PLC by an operator.
The programmable display can store a number of pieces of screen data created by a personal computer, and can switch and display a number of screens.
In each screen data piece, a label or device name for uniquely specifying a memory area in the PLC to be monitored, and a label or device name for uniquely specifying a memory area in the PLC to be a transfer destination of data inputted to each screen are written. As a result, the data to be monitored is displayed in each screen, and the data inputted in each screen is transferred to the PLC. A user of the personal computer can determine the label. The user of the personal computer can easily determine which kind of data in the PLC is monitored and to which part of the PLC the data are transferred, by writing the memory area in the PLC to be monitored and the memory area in the PLC to be the transfer destination of the data as labels.
When requesting the data to be monitored to the PLC and when transferring the input data to the PLC, it is necessary for the programmable display to designate the device name for uniquely specifying each memory area in the PLC for the PLC. The device name is a name which is systematically allocated to each memory area by a vendor of the PLC. Therefore, it is necessary for the personal computer to store a label list in which labels are respectively associated with the device names and to convert a label written in each screen data piece into a device name.
A combination of a single or a plurality of pieces of screen data and the label list is referred to as project data. The screen data are managed with the project data being used as a unit.
It has been desired to divert certain screen data in project data created to monitor a combination of one industrial machine and a PLC to other project data to monitor a combination of another industrial machine and another PLC. This is because if screen data can be diverted, it is possible to improve efficiency of creating the project data and reduce man-hours.